Putting teamwork on the radar
Test Engineer of the Year Hung Nguyen drives F/A-18 AESA radar-system test and integration at Raytheon.
By Rick Nelson, Editor in Chief -- Test & Measurement World, 4/1/2008
El Segundo, CA.— Modern radar system design and test strategies have undergone a revolution that has drastically increased the importance of teamwork in pulling together the disparate components and subsystems that make up products such as Raytheon's APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar for the US Navy's F/A-18 aircraft. By the time Raytheon gained Navy approval for the APG-79 last summer, it had relied heavily on the efforts of Hung Nguyen, chief scientist at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, who possessed the leadership skills required to guide the project team and the broad system knowledge necessary to integrate the various AESA hardware and software components and to troubleshoot the complete radar system. Nguyen remains a key contributor to the program as Raytheon works to deliver 437 systems for the Navy in coming years. Because of his accomplishments, he was nominated for the annual Test Engineer of the Year award and was voted as the winner by the readers of Test & Measurement World.
In our October 2007 issue, we profiled the accomplishments of six outstanding test engineers from various industries, and we asked our readers to vote for the Test Engineer of the Year. Your choice? Hung Nguyen of Raytheon.
As part of his award, Nguyen will designate an engineering or science program to receive a $20,000 grant, courtesy of award sponsors Keithley Instruments and National Instruments.
Photo by Steve Labadessa.
See also:
T&MW Awards Program
2008 Test Engineer of the Year finalists
2008 Best in Test winners
2008 Test Product of the Year
2008 Test of Time winner
Thomas A. Kennedy, VP of tactical airborne systems for Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems business, described the APG-79 as “beyond state-of-the-art”—incorporating as it does a solid-state actively scanned array that replaces the rotating antennas of traditional radar systems, supporting multi-target tracking while providing instantaneous situational awareness to a fighter pilot whose life depends on its correct operation. Kennedy has an affinity for the AESA program. Before his promotion to VP in 2004, he was program manager for the Navy's early AESA radar-development program, taking it from development through test and transition to production.
In air-to-air engagements, the radar allows targets to be engaged at very long ranges and offers reduced air-crew workload via its resource manager. The system also offers high-resolution ground mapping at long standoff ranges for air-to-surface tracking, with an interleaved mode capability and at least a threefold to fivefold increase in system reliability. The system, Kennedy said, provides air-to-air and air-to-ground operation and is driven by “an immense amount of software running on multiple processors.” As for Nguyen's contribution, Kennedy said, “Hung has the unique skill set to make sure the RF portion is properly integrated with the digital portion,” which performs operations ranging from the common fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) to the other specialized processing necessary to develop usable information from the RF signals.
The radar revolutionBill Gardner, Raytheon's tactical airborne systems radar product line director, explained how radar design has evolved to place a greater emphasis on the teamwork that Nguyen facilitates: “Prior designs were based on highly specialized and unique systems architectures and components. Those radar systems/architectures were 'one of a kind,' designed specifically to provide extremely high performance in very stressing environments with minimal consideration for cost and schedule.”
But that's no longer the case, he explained, adding, “Today's military defense-budget challenges and advances in the commercial sector have totally antiquated this design strategy and have revolutionized the way we design, fabricate, test, and integrate military radar products. Today's radars, for example, are based on commercial Fibre Channel architectures and standards, they utilize high-speed digital processors that are available commercially, and they integrate commercial design tools.”
The revolution, he said, has not been without significant test and integration challenges, adding that “Hung led our industry through these challenges and achieved success with the integration and now production of the APG-79 AESA for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.”
 This photograph taken at Naval Air Station Oceana shows the APG-79 AESA radar installed in an F/A-18 Super Hornet. Courtesy of Boeing. |
Gardner elaborated on the challenges involved in leveraging the benefits of advanced microwave and digital technologies in radar systems while achieving high levels of reliability and stability. Modern radar systems, he said, comprise several hundred thousand parts and millions of lines of software code, and they employ extremely complex high-data-rate-communication schemes that must provide for system-critical data transfer under severe timing constraints. “Hung and his team have developed and instituted rigorous test and integration processes, tools, and supporting test equipment to drive fundamental system reliability and stability to the levels required,” he said.
Gardner further described the testability challenges: Historically, with one-of-a-kind custom radar systems, engineers could build in testability. But with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, “you've got what you've got, and you're highly dependent upon what testability is provided with the COTS components. Hung has the skills to take commercial systems with limited testability and adapt them into production-ready testable systems. He is able to adapt commercial products to unique military requirements.” Gardner added that while Nguyen has been focused on the new APG-79, he works across all of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems product lines, including the ASTOR (Airborne Stand-Off Radar) program for the UK Ministry of Defence. That advanced ground-surveillance system will be jointly operated by the Royal Air Force and the British Army.
Nguyen's background is in mathematics, and he has a PhD in the subject from the University of California at Berkeley. That background has positioned him well to have an understanding of all aspects of radar-system design. As Kennedy put it, “Hung works the whole chain—from RF down to DC. He understands all of the different disciplines involved.”
 Bill Gardner, Raytheon’s tactical airborne systems radar product line director (left), and Thomas A. Kennedy, VP of tactical airborne systems (right), study a simulation with Nguyen. Photo by Steve Labadessa. |
“My background was in mathematics,” he explained, “and I was very much interested in problem solving in theoretical mathematics. I didn't at the time have much interest in the applied world of industry. I was interested in understanding and solving problems in the quest for more knowledge.”
He had reason to doubt the practicability of theoretical math when, on completing his bachelor's degree at Trinity Christian College, he went to Berkeley. “When I started at graduate school,” he commented, “the department chairman in a welcoming speech said, 'If you're thinking about making a living from using mathematics, you should think twice.'”
But he was able to put his education to use as a programmer at what's now Raytheon. He found himself initially focused on the relatively narrow task of programming operator-selectable radar modes, while other teams focused on the development of antennas, transmitters, receivers, processors, and so forth. But what really piqued his interest was his first participation in the integration phase that brings the fruits of each individual team together. “It's a little bit of a marvel to see how your small piece, which you've been working on for two years, becomes part of the big picture.”
After several months in the integration lab, Nguyen developed some grasp of a complete radar system. Then the lead integrator was reassigned, and Nguyen was able to fill his shoes. “That, for me, was the turning point,” he said. “I got very busy with my work here, and for the last 20 years or so, I've stayed busy, doing the job of system integration and troubleshooting.”
His hobby of gardening—from which he draws analogies to the test challenges he faces on the job—suggests a quiet patience. But another hobby—distance running, including marathons—suggests persistence as well as patience. Indeed, development programs director Kenneth Flack described him as “our ace in the hole—a logical and methodical pit bull who won't let go of a problem until it's solved.”
Nguyen divides test into two categories. First is verification, in which a product passes a checklist of tests before being shipped to a customer. Second is troubleshooting, in which engineers try to figure out why a product exhibits an anomaly every so often.
“To find out what caused that anomaly, we first determine whether it's a phenomenon that can be duplicated reliably. We then try to narrow down the cause of that phenomenon to a particular piece of hardware or particular piece of software, so we devise tests to find out what the source of the problem is. We try to eliminate potential sources to eventually narrow down our search to the particular source that caused the problem.
“It's just like gardening,” he continued. “I plant roses, and if my roses don't grow well, I need to determine whether the problem is the location or too much or too little fertilizer.” In fact, he said, “Everyone does some sort of testing every day. We all—not just scientists and engineers—do it all the time.”
Mentor and leaderMany of Nguyen's coworkers pointed out that he is not just a team worker but a strong team builder who nurtures young engineers. And that's critical, Flack said, because entry-level engineers may have more experience playing video games than in real-world laboratories. Today's young people want everything to operate by push-button, he said, adding, “Well, engineering is not push-button. It's not a game. You can't turn it off.”
As Gardner put it, “The industry is in a transitional state. Military defense contractor consolidations that occurred in the past five to 10 years, along with the drain of engineering talent to the commercial sector and the rise in retirements of seasoned aerospace engineers, have opened the gap in highly trained and experienced test and integration engineers.” Therefore, he said, the industry must face the challenges posed by the radar revolution with less-experienced personnel. “Hung,” he said, “has taken on the role as a leader/mentor to several younger-generation engineers and is key to imparting his level of understanding, intuition, and rigor into the test and integration process. His leadership is critical to developing the next generation of test and integration engineers.”
Ruby Torres, who as deputy director of the systems verification center is responsible for system integration, verification, and validation processes and for the development of test systems, described Nguyen as “a tried and true systems engineer with end-to-end capability and ownership,” who works effectively with experienced engineers, entry-level engineers, and customers. “Hung is deeply involved developing our test strategies and in reconciling test requirements” as the disparate components, subsystems, and software that make up a radar system come together. She alluded to manager Ken Flack's comments about Nguyen's pit-bull tendencies: “He's our 'go-to' person. And if something doesn't work, he keeps trying until it does.”
Does he have any shortcomings? “Hung is very humble and doesn't promote his accomplishments,” she said. That's what prompted her to nominate him for the 2008 Test Engineer of the Year award.
